Yahoo and Apple top customer ratings

Google loses top service spot

Shaun Nichols in California

A recent survey has named Apple as the top PC vendor in terms of customer satisfaction, while Yahoo took home the customer crown among portals.

The survey was conducted for the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a database maintained by the University of Michigan Business School designed to rate customer service among market leaders in various US business sectors.

Advertisement

Yahoo improved its score among web portals by three points to 79, while rival Google saw its score fall from 81 to 78.

This is the first time since 2002 that Google has been beaten to the top spot on the index.

Part of the problem for Google may be the way in which it presents its products, according to University of Michigan professor Claes Fornell.

"For a company that has introduced so many new products and made so many changes, it may be surprising that its homepage has changed so little," he said in a commentary on the report. "It is almost the same as it was in the 1990s."

The other portals named in the rankings included Ask.com and MSN, each of which scored 75. AOL came in last with a score of 67.

Apple was top among PC makers despite dropping four points from last year. Fornell credits much of the drop to Apple's growing sales numbers.

"Apple has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years," said the professor. "It is not easy to manage quality and customer satisfaction when a company has to increase production quickly or provide service to a larger number of customers."

The PC industry as a whole lost an average of two points in the index over last year. Only HP, Gateway and Compaq saw improved scores.

Among those suffering a steep drop in customer satisfaction was Dell. The company picked up four points last year, only to see its score drop back down to its 2005 score of 74, the lowest since 1997.

Dell still retained a higher score than Compaq, however, which held on to its spot at the bottom of the rankings with a score of 73.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

Google Chrome

Microsoft has no need to worry about Chrome OS

Redmond may actually welcome the new arrival

Dr Aladdin Ayesh

Is it time for the Turing Test to retire?

It is nearly 60 years since Alan Turing devised a...

Security double standards

Broadband provider Tiscali has launched new figures showing an alarming...

Beach

Top 10 holiday gadgets

A wry look at the must-have beach items for any...

Primary Navigation